Akers and Perkins Reached For The Stars
A pair of former college football coaches passed away this week.
Neither achieved the success they wanted, but both left their imprint in the programs they coached.
I also knew and liked both Fred Akers and Ray Perkins for a variety of reasons, but most of all for giving me an insight into the pressures and challenges of coaching at two of the most storied programs in college football, the University of Texas and the University of Alabama.
I spent five years covering college football in the old Southwest Conference for the Dallas Morning News.
Fred Akers was the coach at Texas for four of those five years, but after a pair of unbeaten seasons and SWC conference titles, Akers, even with an 86-31-2 record in ten seasons at Texas, was fired after the 1986 season.
One of my favorite Akers stories occurred during the SWC annual spring meetings in Austin, which was always highlighted by a golf tournament among the coaches and their staffs.
I was standing at the first tee with Akers and Jackie Sherrill, who was then coaching Texas A&M, one of Texas' biggest rivals.
Akers teed off first and hit a perfect drive right down the center of the fairway.
Sherrill couldn't resist.
"Pretty good swing for this early in the golf season, Fred,” said Sherrill. "Must not be doing much recruiting.''
Akers didn't miss a beat, "Don't have to'' he said as he walked down the fairway.
And then there was Texas’ other rival, Oklahoma, which was then highlighted by the antics of OU's All American linebacker Brian Bosworth, a Texas boy who went north of the Red River to play his college football.
During Texas week, Bosworth went off on a rant about hating everything to do with Texas, including Akers, the color Orange (Texas colors) and the city of Austin.
"I can understand Boz hating me and the color or orange,'' said Akers. "But how can you hate the city of Austin. What's wrong with that boy?''
After being fired at Texas, Akers was hired at Purdue, but had four consecutive losing seasons and never again climbed near the top of the coaching mountain.
My relationship with Perkins began when he was hired in 1979 by the New York football Giants (I love still saying that) and I was a reporter working in New Jersey covering a team that was a long way from being a Super Bowl contender.
Perkins was brought in as part of a new management team by general manager George Young.
Perkins’ main claim to fame was as an All American wide receiver at Alabama for a quarterback named Joe Namath.
But Perkins in his post playing career had come to the Giants as an assistant from San Diego and quickly established his understanding of surrounding himself with good people.
Two prominent names from Perkins coaching tree are Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick.
One of Perkins traits was to look at you with a laser-like stare after you asked him a question.
Early in our professional relationship, Perkins gave a misleading statement which I knew was false.
I waited until after practice and confronted him with it, telling him that he had put me in a compromising position professionally, having to choose between printing what he said, which I knew was a lie.
After what seemed like a minute of silence, he simply said, "You're right. I won't do it again.''
We never had another problem for the next 39 years at a variety of stops.
Perkins was starting to build a program with the Giants when "mama called.'' Legendary Alabama coach Paul Bear Bryant had retired and Perkins, one of Bryant's favorite players, received the call to come back to his alma mater.
While Perkins was moving, so was I, going from New Jersey to Dallas for a five year stint with the Morning News and then a 25-year run at the Boston Globe.
I kept in touch with Perkins at Alabama and then later with the Tampa Bay Bucs and after that for a short one year stint at Arkansas State.
I made trips to each of those places to do stories and kept in touch with him through the years. I last saw Perkins a few years ago at a CFB Championship game function in Miami.
I remember calling him at Alabama in 1984 for a somewhat less than professional reason.
Bruce Springsteen was in the middle of his Born in the USA tour and was doing a concert in Birmingham.
I was a Springsteen fan, living in Dallas, and wanted to go, so I called Perkins up and made the request. "”Perk, Springsteen is coming to Birmingham, ''I said, "Can you get me a ticket?"”
""Sure,'' said Perkins. ""Who's Springsteen?”
I also remember visiting Pekins when he began his short stay at Arkansas State. He told me a story about some of his encounters with the local fan base who would gather for a "summit'' meeting each morning at a coffee shop in downtown Jonesboro, Arkansas.
After introductions, one of the fans asked Perkins if he had a dog.
Perkins, knowing the long hours necessary to make things work, said, "No. Why would I want a dog if I'm not going to be around that much?
"Coach,” said one of the fans, "When you get your butt beat 50-0 every week, the only one in this town that's going to want to see you is that dog.''
Fred Akers. Ray Perkins.
RIP.
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